The dogtrot house is one of the most iconic kinds of national vernacular architecture in the Southern U.S. Its lineage can be traced to the one-room square log cottages along the hills of Appalachia. As household life and operational needs expanded, the farmer simply added another cottage and connected the two with a common sheltering roof. And, once the old dog had been too hot to trot, as they state, the covered breezeway was the ideal escape from the region’s engulfing heat and humidity. Therefore, the title”dogtrot” was born to describe a new kind of domestic structure permanently linked to the South.
I grew up in the rural Piedmont of the Carolinas, so scenes of deserted tenant houses, sharecropper’s shacks, and dog trots were the regular structure of my childhood. They were modest, poetic, and just amazing, without pretense. An extremely operational need was provided for with the simplest of means, and that is the essential lesson.
Architects so seldom succeed in making buildings as well positioned and beautiful since the vernacular structures left behind by frontiersmen and farmers. Now, a few architects have found ways to reinterpret these kinds for modern living by opening the central room to the landscape and breezes.
An exquisite Texas house by Lake | Flato Architects, the Cross Timbers Ranch has a broad sheltering roof on a massive outdoor breezeway. Enclosed living space is relatively modest when compared with the amount of coated open air space, which for the majority of the year is just as livable as the inside.
Here’s a precedent. The historical John Looney House in Asheville, Alabama is a rare surviving example of a two-story dogtrot. Here is the iconic type with a view directly through the center of the house. Clearly evident are just two cubic cottage forms on each side of the breezeway.
Fireplaces were nearly always placed at the ends. One negative was for sleeping, and also alternative for cooking and dining. The open center was the living and sitting space and was obviously chilled as breezes were dragged into each side through open doors.
Lake Flato Architects
San Antonio-based Lake | Flato Architects has designed a modular system of small structures which may be flexibly arranged on a website in line with the needs of their proprietor. Here at the Miller Ranch, a dogtrot structure includes an open living space and kitchen separated in the master suite across the breezeway. A detached guest pavilion is set to create an inner courtyard.
The Texas climate is well suited to an arrangment of small individual one-room-deep pavilions with cross ventilation, similar to the historical vernacular precedent.
Lake Flato Architects
The dogtrot can be seen here at the far end of the open living space with the master suite outside that. The one-room deep distance is almost entirely made up of windows and doors which open along each side. This is the right reaction to a humid and hot climate.
Lake Flato Architects
A strong line of sight is created by well-considered positioning of each pavilion set within an axis only off center from a beautiful old tree.
I ardently think that the landscape would be your architect’s most trusted and loyal companion!
Lake Flato Architects
Operable sliding louvered panels permit privacy and the ability to regulate the sun and atmosphere when needed.
I could imagine these being equipped with insect screens, creating a sleeping porch for cool fall nights.
Frederick + Frederick Architects
This South Carolina home is large and broad, however, the open center pulls the eye along with the breeze right through it. The pool puts up a wonderful axis and reflects the timeless formality of the home.
Frederick + Frederick Architects
The distance transitions to a seating area where furniture can be used to fortify the lines of this structure. The eye carries on through porch, pool and outside to into the coastal marsh.
Philpotts Interiors
Roll-up doors disappear, opening this dining table space to the ocean on one side along with the entry path on the opposite. A set of tall urns fortify the hardness and axial focus of this single point perspective.
Moroso Construction
This contemporary home also places the dining room in the open space and puts up an axial relationship of furniture and architecture. Good designers look for ways to produce both match each other.
House Port LLC/Hally Thacher
Here, the elements of a timeless dogtrot house are accomplished by returning the outside walls of each self-contained space to the breezeway. A set of twin buildings are attached only by a roof, also appears to stay completely open during all seasons.
Dara Rosenfeld Design
While not a true dogtrot, this home follows the notion with a large, spacious, cross-ventilated central living space.
Josh McCullar Architects
Brett Zamore Studio in Houston developed the”Shot Trot” house for a hybrid between the shotgun and the dogtrot. Like a shotgun house, the narrow end faces the road, however, the open breezeway is oriented towards the side yard and an extended deck.
Josh McCullar Architects
A deck extends from one side, and also the living room expands outward in the spring and fall. During the humid and hot period of summertime, these louvers act as sunscreens, filtering light to the inside.
Josh McCullar Architects
Here’s a glimpse inside the Shot Trot house.
Mike Connell
This single-story board-and-batten ranch house appears very typical at first glance, however, the breezeway frames the opinion of a mountain canyon.
Mike Connell
Here, the opinion of the canyon can be appreciated under an open beam roof with a skylight. The narrow long table extends the eye outward as the traces of the roof structure push down, converging at a remote point in space.
Feldman Architecture, Inc..
My favorite variations of this dogtrot house have always been those with fireplaces inserted to the center. I also just happen to enjoy a good fireplace — it stokes my heart! It allows use of this open space during cooler weather, so allowing you to feel both the cool breeze and the warmth of an open fire. There’s just something so satisfying about that.
This chimney stands in one opening of a dogtrot, instead of being a part of the inside wall. It becomes a two-sided fireplace, and also the central space is a place to gather family and friends for a weekend escape in Mississippi.
Design by Waggonner and Ball Architects
Josh McCullar Architects
The two-story dogtrot precedent has inspired this notion for a coastal modern escape. A large common roof was made to shelter two wooden louvered sleeping cabanas on each side of a central breezeway, on axis with the fireplace. On the shore, the fireplace will be a gathering place on cool spring or fall evenings. The second floor deck joins the cabanas, along with a back kitchen and dining area will open to the pool and lawn.
Robert Young Architects
The calmness of an interior, exposed roof structure, and side walls which open make this dwelling area cool and calming.
When designing a home, vernacular precedent such as the dogtrot house can offer time-tested lessons of introducing light and air into the center of the home.
More: The L-Shaped House Plan
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